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Assembly: An unacknowledged war story |
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Written by By GLORIA LAI MAN-TING
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Tuesday, 11 March 2008 |
Facing millions of enemies with only 46 soldiers, it was no wonder that
they could not escape from the misfortune of being defeated.
 But worse than the dilemma soldiers had between life and death, no one even remembered them after the war. So the only survived captain had begun his way on seeking recognition for his fallen comrades.
“Assembly” directed by famous Chinese director, Feng Xiao-gang, just tells this war story. It is really different from others by showing soldiers’ special persistence instead of focusing on the bloody scenes.
The plot is set in the year 1948 to 1958. During the Huaihai Campaign, the ninth captain, Gu Zi-di, was ordered to lead the 139th company of 46 soldiers to act as a defense against the enemies in the frontline. Before the battle started, the regimental commander had agreed with captain Gu to use the assembly call, a certain signal to order the retreat of the army.
Facing strong opponents armed with countless tanks and cannons, Gu Zi-di’s men, with only rifles, were always trying their best to fight but also wishing to hear the assembly call. One soldier once heard the call but others couldn’t confirm it. So captain Gu asked them to keep fighting. Finally they all died only except Gu Zi-di.
The war ended, but life didn’t. Captain Gu started his new task of finding the regimental commander to discover whether the assembly call had been given, and to seek recognition for his fallen comrades. It was very difficult as all the armies had been mixed up during later battles. Everyone thought it was crazy.
But captain Gu kept going, because this was the only thing he could do for his soldiers. He visited all the places, asking all the people around, interviewing all the witnesses and went to the scene of the war in the hope of getting any clues to tell the others that his beloved team members had really once existed and fought for the whole country.
War is cruel and death is horrible, but being forgotten and disavowed is even more desperate. Except using a series of 3-dimensional scenes to make a succession of shocking scenes for wars and brings it to real life in a tensed atmosphere neglecting the confines of the 21st century, Director of “Assembly”, Feng Xiao-gang uses more time to reflect the grief and joy, hardships and commonness of rank-and-filers to us in a lively way, which maybe makes the story stand out from others.
“Everyone is given a name by their parents, how can they become meaningless when sacrificed in battle?!” This is one of the unforgettable sayings in the film. There were in fact many heroes on the battlefields, but how many of them were really named and praised in history? This reflects the uneasy feeling of the soldiers.
Actually, people not only fail to title those valiant soldiers as martyrs, but also bury these historical facts along with the dead bodies of the soldiers in mud, just the same as if they never exited before. Director Feng uses his hand to help this kind of soldiers to tell their grievances and reclaim their glory in honor bound.
For war’s part, the director and film staffs have made successfully grand scenes which even wouldn’t worse than other famous war films. During the wars, all the soldiers were like a flash in the pan, but producers did well on some brilliant specific points to make them special and their spirit never end.
For example, the instructor Wang Jin-cun was relatively fainthearted, so captain Gu let him records for all soldiers and guard in the back. But at last, he not only marked down this historical moment in his notebook, but also bravely fired the bombs and buried himself along with all the dead bodies of his comrades in arms in the cave to keep them together.
Sitting comfortably in the audience, we can still feel the muscles moving and squeezing under the soldiers’ clothes. The story is so real and heart-touching. The superb acting of the performers accompanied by the spellbinding sound effect leads the audience to enter the war.
Till now, “Assembly” has already received a big success. It was the grand opening of Pusan International Film Festival, Asia’s largest cinema event. It also joined the International Competition of Turkey’s Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. And it was shown in the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival in October, 2007.
The organizer said one cinema in Kowloon had already decided to put this film on show in January or February next year and other cinemas are also being invited to join now.
Edited by BETH YE LETIAN
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 12 March 2008 )
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